Standard Member

Just moved home. I have a sky+ box from previous dwelling and have moved into a house with sat dish set up for sky.

I had been seriously considering a DIY job to put a quad LNB and extra cable from dish to front room as I didn't want to have to re-mortgage to get sky to do it for me! However, the wife was not too keen on me climbing out of the 2nd floor window and onto the roof to get at the dish.

Whilst on the phone to sky to inform them of change of address I asked them what they would charge to do it for me? They offered me a home mover deal for £40. They'll do weekends (so no time off work), will replace the dish if required and were fine that dish being on the roof.

Suprised to say the least. Now that is good value if you ask me. The parts alone for a DIY job are £20 (And that's without the hospital bills!).

So, the engineer is booked in, the wife is happy and I stay on terra firma.

Guest

All Sky engineers are cleared to work at a height of up to 30 feet. We all carry roof ladders, so as long as you are in a nornal sized house there shouldn't be a problem. However, if you get subbies, many of them will not go on a roof, and if your house is more than the normal ground and first floor it will need a special installations team.

Active Member

exactly Arthur
all my local sky engineers don't do roofs due to health and safety. Even though they carry harnesses and have completed the 1 day course.
and jobs take to long for the same money.
they would rather do 6 terrace houses than 3 victorian

Standard Member

Sky don't do chimneys for one simple reason-liability!! A gust of wind with a sat dish causing the chimney to come down We were authorised upto 30Ft(health & safety) and subbies are the ones who throw the sytems in-us Sky(or ex as in my case!!) then go around correcting the shoddy work BTW,Sky engineers get no bonus (unlike subbies who are paid per job) for how many jobs they do-they are given the jobs in the morning (usually 4 installs) This may have changed i guess though

Standard Member

A Dork,I am not arguing here Are you a Sky engineer or have you even been? I was and have merely passed on the info i was given as an employee of Sky.There's nothing non-standard about the fittings at all,a standard bracket will easily go onto most chimneys,all engineers carry a T & K bracket too for other non-standard installations. There was no bonus system when i worked there,but obvioulsy you know more!!!

Standard Member

ps,one of the reasons i left wa sthe poor pay-no bonus scheme although it was mentioned on the induction day's.I also left as most engineers had no pride in the quality of work(i do) AND MOST OF THE SUBBIES WERE EVEN WORSE! Put it this way,if i wanted Sky i would do it myself!!!

Standard Member

Hi.My website is what i currently do. I started off in computers and networking,got disillusioned with it all and quit. I then worked for Sky for three months in '99 IIRC. Now i'm back in computers installing networks-only now i work for me Put it this way,this weekend i earned more than i would have at Sky in 4 MONTHS!! So over 13 years experience in my current field and a short stint @ Sky!! lol,BT is tha place to work-£30K a year for not doing much

Guest

I do if I have to. A chimney install is regarded as a last resort. There are many factors to be taken into account before installing a dish on a chimney, the construction- is it sound, is the chimney itself big enough, what type of roof tiles are there- will they support the weight of the ladders and installer, will the siting of the dish break planing regulations.
It is not as easy as just saying stick it on the chimney, however if there is an existing dish already fitted then most Sky engineers will go up to it if there is no alternative, some however will make an excuse to cancel the job.